When a Brunnich’s Guillemot-chick is a few weeks old, it jut got rid of its down feathers and is definitely not ready to fly yet. However, they do have to make their first jump. The parents can’t get enough food to the chick, so they have to bring the chick to the food. They start to circle around the chick, encouraging it to jump from its ledge. Unable to fly, they can’t really decide themselves where they land. If they get unlucky they might land on the tundra, or even worse on a rock or in the mouth of a hungry  Arctic Fox or Glaucous Gull. The lucky ones make it to the water, where they start to swim and head towards the unknown. The father will lead the way (the mother takes off and is never to be seen again) and they spent the next 1.5 month at open sea in the North Atlantic. As the North Atlantic can be quite rough in September, the chick has this loud whistle, so the male can easily find his chick when there are some waves between them.

This picture depicts a male with his chick swimming away to an unknown future.